Former NHLer Theo Fleury stands in front of a child abuse monument in Toronto on May 14.

AP Photo

Feb. 15 – The Manitoba Court of Appeal increases the prison sentence of former junior hockey coach Graham James to five years from two after his 2012 conviction for sexually abusing National Hockey League star Theo Fleury and his younger cousin.

March 8 – The Métis win a landmark case as the Supreme Court of Canada rules the federal government failed to live up to its constitutional obligations in handing out land to children of the Manitoba Métis in the 1870s. It opens the door for the Métis to negotiate a claim to vast tracts of land in the province, including all of present-day Winnipeg.

April 16 – The Manitoba government tables a budget in the Manitoba legislature that will increase the provincial sales tax one point to eight per cent. The Greg Selinger NDP government has taken a political beating over the issue, but the sales tax went into effect July 1, months before it was approved by the legislature on Dec. 5 following a lengthy filibuster by the Conservative Opposition.

June – Child and Family Services workers seize dozens of children from a rural Manitoba Old Order Mennonite community amid allegations of abuse. Some of the children were later returned to their parents.

Nov. 4 – The Canadian Museum for Human Rights announces it will open on Sept. 20, 2014. The trouble-plagued, over-budget museum, first announced in 2003, has experienced setbacks such as having extra funding refused and controversy over exhibits, with Ukrainians and First Nations among those who have stated they feel the exhibits aren’t giving proper weight to some atrocities.

Nov. 14 – Shawn Lamb pleads guilty to manslaughter for the killings of Lorna Blacksmith, 18, and Caroline Sinclair, 25. A charge of second-degree murder for the slaying of Tanya Nepinak, whose body has never been found, was stayed the following week.

Nov. 25 – In four federal byelections, the Conservatives hold on to two longtime Tory bastions in Manitoba, while the Liberals retained two traditional strongholds in Toronto and Montreal. The Liberals increased their share of the vote in all four ridings.